Roy wasn’t hurt. She didn’t have a single wound anywhere on her body.

That was Kain’s conclusion as he looked at her fair skin. As for how he’d managed to see her whole body, well…

The pirate lady wasn’t wearing a thing. She sat naked on the bed, holding the bloodstained pants she’d just taken off. Her belt and shirt lay discarded in the scattered straw.

Time seemed to stop. The two of them stared at each other in a daze for ten seconds, until Roy—utterly oblivious to this sort of thing—finally came around and asked in confusion, “What’s wrong? Is something the matter?”

Kain suddenly snapped back to his senses. Without looking back, he walked out and pulled the wooden door shut behind him. Through the door, he said, “Why’d you take your clothes off for no reason? Get dressed first, then we’ll talk.”

“But if I put them on, they’ll get bloody and need washing. What a pain.” Roy clearly had no idea what Kain was so worried about. She was only fretting over the hassle of doing laundry.

“Put them on first. I’ll wash them for you later, okay?”

Kain forced down his irritation, feeling his heart race. He couldn’t tell whether it was from frustration or nerves.

As far as he was concerned, the famed captain—whose name was known far and wide—could be unbelievably dense in certain ways. Women among pirates were usually pretty carefree, but it was rare to find someone as clueless as her.

Since even her first mate had said so, Roy reluctantly did as she was told. After a faint rustle from inside the room, her muffled voice came through the door. “I’m dressed. You can come in.”

When Kain went back into the room, the dazzling sight from before was gone. Only then did he finally let out a breath of relief.

He sat on the edge of the bed and watched the captain tug at her pants to keep the sticky bloodstains from touching her body again. Frowning slightly, he said, “When I heard Elfie making such a fuss, I thought you’d gotten into a fight with the old man and been hurt. Who knew it was… this. But shouldn’t this have happened to you more than once by now? How come you were still completely unprepared?”

Roy was already eighteen. That sort of thing usually happened by sixteen at the latest. But judging by Elfie’s horrified reaction and the faint bewilderment on the captain’s face, you’d think she was experiencing it for the first time.

“What sort of thing?” Roy asked, utterly confused. She had no idea what her first mate was talking about.

“It’s…”

Kain suddenly choked on his words. He wasn’t sure how to explain it. After thinking for a moment, he put it delicately: “It’s something every girl goes through as she grows into a woman.”

Roy blinked. Then her eyes suddenly widened, disbelief filling her golden irises. “Y-you… Don’t make things up! I’ve never slept with a man!”

It was clearly a huge misunderstanding. Kain finally realized, with a weary, helpless ache, that the captain knew absolutely nothing about female biology. He replied weakly, “That’s not what I mean. Has this never happened to you before… bleeding down there?”

Watching the officer look utterly mortified, Roy firmly shook her head—and then said something that broke him completely. “No. This is my first time being a woman.”

What did she mean, her first time being a woman?

Kain couldn’t think of a single explanation that made sense. Had this pirate captain once been a man? The Punora Federation did have sex reassignment surgeries, though they were officially prohibited by law. But the side effects were so severe that there was no way someone could be as healthy and natural as Roy.

After a long, agonizing silence, Howard’s young master—who had never endured anything so torturous—managed to speak. “H-have you ever heard of a first period?”

At the words “first period,” Roy froze.

She really had never experienced anything so bizarre, but she knew what the term meant. Back when she’d drunk and caroused with the daughters of noble families, she’d learned plenty of secrets about women’s bodies from them.

“No way…” The captain was finally scared. Her voice trembled. “You mean what I’m bleeding now… is period blood?”

The officer nodded without expression. Roy nearly fainted. She rubbed her aching head, then forgot all about holding up her pants and grabbed Kain’s arm with both hands, as if he were the last lifeline in the world. “Kain, you can’t just stand by and let me die! Hurry and help me figure something out.”

Kain glanced at Roy’s hand, still smeared with warm blood, and asked in confusion, “Figure what out?”

“What if the bleeding won’t stop? I heard it can last two to seven days. It’s not bleeding that much, but if it doesn’t stop… I don’t think I can take it.”

For the first time, Roy felt as if the sky were falling. This disaster happening inside her own body felt even more despairing than being surrounded by the Orlan Navy in Mossley Bay for three whole days.

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is a perfectly normal bodily function. It should’ve happened ages ago. If anything, getting your first period at eighteen is what’s strange.”

Kain shook his head, stopping Roy from letting her imagination run wild. He spoke gently. “Pay attention to hygiene and keep warm for the next few days. Don’t go running around like you usually do. Ask the head chef to make you some hot food, and lay off the alcohol for now…”

“So… I’m not going to pass out from losing too much blood?” Roy hadn’t taken in a word of her first mate’s advice. She was gradually realizing this wasn’t anything serious—just another little hill for the great Captain Roy to step over. Her eyes slowly brightened again.

“Of course not, but…”

Kain pulled his arm out of Roy’s grasp and looked at the bloodstains on his uniform. He was about to remind her of a few more things to watch out for, but when he looked up, he found she’d already stopped paying attention. Instead, she was holding the returning Elfie and boasting about yet another great victory for the captain.

“You heard him, right? It’s no big deal, Elfie. Getting slashed by the navy might be worse than this.”

“Could you please listen to what I’m saying?” Kain’s voice dropped.

“Of course.” Roy caught the warning sign at once and immediately adopted the serious air of a negotiator, as if she were facing not her first mate, but another pirate captain just as dangerous and powerful as herself.

In the end, Kain crammed everything he knew about biology, along with every precaution she needed to take during her period, into the captain’s head. Then he went and fetched a spare men’s sailor uniform. He asked the merchant ship’s tailor to use the little cotton and fine linen they had left to make a few pads, and told Roy she could tie them around her waist with strips of cloth so they wouldn’t fall off.

Fresh water was incredibly scarce at sea. They used it sparingly even for drinking, let alone for washing clothes or bathing. But out of consideration for Howard’s young master, and because of the valuable promise he’d made, Eda still set aside some fresh water for Roy to bathe with.

The shoddy wooden door creaked. An empty room not far from the living quarters had been turned into a washroom. Every so often, they could hear splashing and soft humming from inside. The tune was called “The Devil’s Treasure,” and it was hugely popular among pirates on both sides of the ocean.

“Do you think… she’ll really remember anything I told her?” Kain asked, listening to the cheerful tune as he looked down at the Jackdaw, who’d only just agreed to come near him.

Elfie’s eyes shone like two black pearls. It looked at the officer as if he were an idiot and said, with absolute certainty, “Never.”